

62 d Congress \ 
2d Session j 


SENATE 


j Document 
I No. 265 


A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION 


ADDRESS 


BY 


JOHN RANDOLPH HAYNES, M. D, 

/# 

SPECIAL COMMISSIONER ON MINING ACCIDENTS 
STATE OF CALIFORNIA 


BEFORE THE JOINT SESSION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC 
ASSOCIATION AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR 
LEGISLATION, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 

DECEMBER 30, 1911 


PRESENTED BY MR. WORKS 
January 9, 1912.—Referred to the Committee on Printing 
January 18, 1912.—Reported favorably from the Committee on Printing 
and ordered to be printed 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1912 










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A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


Mr. Haynes said: 

Of all the nations of the earth, America is the most wasteful 
of the lives of its citizens. Seventy-five thousand of our people 
are killed each year by accidents, of which number 35,000 are 
workmen slain while engaged in their daily occupations. If 
we add to these figures the number of the wounded and crip¬ 
pled in industry, we shall find that Mr. Mercer, of the Min¬ 
nesota, Employees’ Compensation Commission, is not far wrong 
in claiming that industry now kills and cripples more each year 
than did bullet and shrapnel in any year of the Civil War. Of 
all American industries, coal mining is the most hazardous. From 
three to five thousand coal miners are annually killed outright, and 
the number of killed and seriously injured combined amounts to from 
eight to ten thousand each year in the United States. Since 1890 
more than 30,000 coal miners has^e been killed and more than 80,000 
have been seriously injured. In the single State of Pennsylvania in 
the year 1907 alone more than 1,000 miners were killed, leaving 
nearly 1,000 widows and 3,410 children under 10 years of age. 

Now, this would be a frightful story to relate if it were necessary 
and inevitable, but as a matter of fact it is not at all necessary. The 
leading mining experts both of America and Europe tell us that it is 
perfectly practicable to prevent most of this loss of life. Mr. Joseph 
Holmes, Director of the Bureau of Mines, declares that three-fourtns 
of this loss can be easily prevented. In view of these facts it becomes 
a question whether these fatalities which can be so readily foreseen 
and so easily prevented ought to be called accidents; some day we 
may come to regard them as little better than murders. While the 
average annual death rate from mining accidents in Europe runs, per 
1,000 men employed, below 2, and in the case of France and Belgium 
is less than 1, in the United States the rate in 1907 was, for the smgle 
year, 4.86 lives lost for each 1,000 men employed; in other words, 
our death rate in that year through mining accidents was about five 
times that of France and Belgium and about three times that of other 
European countries. Perhaps the most discouraging feature of the 
whole situation is the fact that statistics show that, while the death 
rate during the past 10 or 15 years has been steadily decreasing in 
every European country, it has been steadily increasing in the United 
States. 

The death rate by accident per 1,000 miners employed has decreased 
in the 11 years from 1895 to 1906 in Prussia from 2.54 to 1.94; in 
England from 1.49 to 1.29; in Belgium from 1.40 to 0.94; in France 
from 1.07 to 0.84. In this same period the death rate in American 
mines steadily increased from 2.67 deaths per 1,000 miners employed 
in 1895 to 3.40 deaths in 1906, and in 1907 this already frightful rate 



4 


A FEDEEAL MINING COMMISSION. 


leaped, as we have seen, to a figure hitherto unheard of in the liistory 
of mining—4.86, or practically 5 out of every 1,000 miners in the 
United States were killed by accident in the single year. The death 
rate-per 100,000 tons of coal mined has also similarly increased. In 
Pennsylvania, where the number of mining fatalities amounts to from 
one-third to one-half of the entire number occurring in the United 
States, there was killed in 1899 one miner for every 215,587 tons of 
coal mined, and in 1908 one miner for every 167,066 tons, both, of 
course, under State regulation. These figures indicate clearly the 
need of drastic measures to improve mining conditions,” says James 
E. Roderick, chief of the department of mines of Pennsylvania, in his 
report to the governor in 1908. 

In the last three years a slight improvement has taken place, but 
not enough to alter the general situation. The question arises: Are 
the natural conditions in American mines more dangerous than those 
found in Europe? The truth is that quite the reverse is the case. 
Three distinguished European experts, Messrs. Victor Watteyne, 
inspector general of mines, Belgium; Carl Meissner, councillor for 
mines, Germany; and Arthur Desborough, inspector of explosives, 
England, who were permitted by their respective Governments to 
accept the invitation of the Government of the United States to 
make an examination of American mines, after an extensive investi¬ 
gation in the year 1908, unanimously reported that the natural con¬ 
ditions in American mines were much better than in Europe. They 
found, for example, that up to the present time Americans were not 
operating in the very deep levels of 4,000 feet and lower, not uncom¬ 
mon in Europe, where the task of supplying fresh air and getting rid 
of dangerous -gases is very difficult. In America, also, only thick 
seams more easily ventilated are, as yet, generally worked. More¬ 
over, the supply of timber for supporting the rock roofs, as compared 
with Europe, has been up to the present plentiful and cheap. Of 
late years, with the gradual exhaustion of higher levels, of the tliicker 
seams, and of the supplies of supporting timbers, conditions have 
come to resemble more nearly those found in Europe, and it is for 
this reason that the percentage of fatalities has so rapidly increased 
in the past decade. 

As yet, however, our natural conditions are still far better than 
those encountered by the operators of Belgium and France, according 
to these European experts, and the fact that our fatalities exceed 
those two countries by a percentage of more than five to one, and in 
absolute number exceed the totM of the whole world outside our 
Nation, is due, these gentlemen were compelled to admit, to the 
almost unbelievable state of carelessness, negligence, and ignorance 
which they found generally prevalent in the mining industry of the 
United States. This condition will never be materially or perma¬ 
nently remedied until a department of the Federal Government is 
established which shall be vested with the actual power of controlling 
mining methods, to the end that the lives of the miners shall be 
safeguarded. 

Before going into the question of the nature and jurisdiction of 
such a tribunal, it may be of advantage to look into a few of the faults 
characterizing American mining which these European experts dis¬ 
covered in their investigations. As compared with European mining 
methods, they found, briefly, the following: Ignorance on the part of 


A FEDEBAL MINING COMMISSION. 


5 


mining superintendents, ignorance on the part of miners, slackness in 
the rules regulating the use of safety lamps, carelessness in permitting 
the accumulation of coal dust, use of coal dust in tamping charges, 
negligence of State omcials in acting upon the reports of inspectors, 
incompetence of State inspectors, carelessness in the arrangement and 
use of electricity in mines, use of improperly compounded explosives, 
the use of excessive charges of explosives, the use of wooden shaft 
structures, and the failure to provide more than one opening to the 
mine. 

First among the causes of the high fatality rate in American mines 
may be placed the ignorance and carelessness of superintendents and 
other mine officials. One of the European experts to whom I have 
ref erred—whose name I am not privileged to mention—told me that 
while passing through a mine in West Virginia with a party carrying 
both naked and safety lamps he lifted his lamp toward the roof to test 
for gas and was surprised to find it present in very dangerous quan¬ 
tities. Turning to the mine superintendent, he remarked, “You 
should not allow naked lamps to be used in this mine.’^ ‘' Oh,’^ replied 
the superintendent, easily, “we are installing a ventilating system that 
in a few months will rid the mine entirely of gas and render the use of 
safety lamps unnecessary.’’ “Before that time arrives,” protested the 
European expert, “your mine will be blown up.” And this is pre¬ 
cisely what happened. The naked lamps were not excluded, the mine 
was blown up a few weeks later, and hundreds of miners lost their lives. 
A hundred other cases, big and little, might be cited to show that our 
requirements as to the qualifications of our mining superintendents 
compared to those in Europe are little better than a farce. Some of 
the States have nominal examinations and grant licenses to superin¬ 
tendents and foremen; but they are of little value, as is shown in the 
case of the large mine just mentioned. No European mining super¬ 
intendent would dream of taking such chances as he foolishly took at 
the cost of so many lives; and if he were so inclined the Government 
inspector would not permit him to do so. In another mine a foreman, 
testing in the early morning, found gas in dangerous quantities. Not 
being able to write, he laid a piece of iron across the railroad track 
before the entry, assuming that the miners would guess that it was a 
danger signal, and went to breakfast. The miners coming later not 
unnaturally failed to understand the purpose of the piece of iron. 
Supposing that it had come there by accident, they removed it from 
the track and passed on into the dangerous section, where every man 
lost his life. 

In Europe a situation where a mine foreman could not read would 
not be understood. There every mining official is a man of intel¬ 
ligence, thoroughly grounded in the principles of his profession; no 
other can secure a license. Shall we go on in this country, clinging 
to our inefficient system of State regulation of an industry that is 
essentially interstate in character until we have uselessly sacrificed 
the lives of tens of thousands more poor miners before we stop this 
slaughter under the only practical system of safety, the Federal 
regulation of the mines ? 

A secoml large contributing cause to the loss of life in American 
mines is the ignorance of the miners themselves. Not only are regu¬ 
lations in Europe very stringent as to the qualifications of the mining 
officials, but they contain rigid provisions forbidding miners to handle 


6 


A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


explosives, or to do any work that may imperil their own brothers' 
lives until after a long apprenticeship under the charge of experienced 
miners they have demonstrated their fitness to assume such respon¬ 
sibilities. In America, where almost anybody is considered good 
enough to be a mine foreman, what qualifications can we expect of 
the common miner? In some of the principal coal-mining States, 
American miners have almost disappeared; ignorant foreigners are 
cheaper; brought over by the immigrant steamship companies at a 
rate of $25 a head or less, they are poured into the mines by the 
thousands. Coming chiefly from the agricultural districts of Europe 
and utterly ignorant of mining methods, they are at once intrusted 
with the handling of the most dangerous explosives, a license which, 
of course, would not have been permitted them in the countries from 
which they came. 

In one mine in Pennsylvania 21 separate languages are spoken; 
many of the miners can read in no language at all; yet any one of these 
men by his ignorance or carelessness may cause the death of all the 
others; and the figures show that this does, indeed, often happen. 
Capt. Desborough, the English mining expert, asked a workman in an 
American mine what he would do if his safety lamp showed the 
presence of gas in dangerous quantities. ^^Oh," was the ready reply, 
^^I would put the lamp on the floor and go on with my work." One 
of the chief purposes of a safety lamp is, of course, to enable the miner 
to be warned when the amount of gas is dangerous. As the danger¬ 
ous gases are more abundant, usually, above the floor level, he raises 
his lamp, and if the lengthening flame in the safety lamp indicates a 
dangerous proportion of gas, it is his duty to warn his fellow miners 
in qrder that all may flee for their lives. Such astounding and perilous 
ignorance as that of the American miner, who considered that the 
danger of gases could be avoided by placing the safety lamp in the 
better air near the floor, could not be encountered among European 
miners. The European miner must show his knowledge of the 
fundamental facts as to the nature of gas, the use and handling of 
safety lamps, and of explosives, etc., or he will not be permitted to 
work. In America these ignorant men come to the mine free of ex¬ 
pense to the operator; if they are slain, they do not cost much; 
miners’ families are too poor to carry on damage suits dragging into 
years for settlement, with the likelihood of an unsympathetic judge 
throwing out the whole case on the ground of some technical defect in 
the drawing of the plea, or upon the ground of the ^'assumption of risk" 
or of the "fellow-servant" legalistic theories. The company claim 
agent therefore, settles with the bereaved families for a few dollars a 
head, and fresh thousands are poured into the mines, and the Lord 
above is depended upon to take care of them. After an explosion in 
a Virginia mine in which many of the miners lost their lives, the sur¬ 
vivors refused to work in a certain part of the mine, knowing it to be 
dangerous. A crowd of fresh immigrants, unfamiliar with the situa¬ 
tion, were brought in, put to work, and soon after perished in a second 
explosion. 

Mining superintendents are not heartless, but they are pressed for 
dividends by the presidents of their companies; the presidents are 
not heartless, but they are pressed for dividends by their directors^ 
who live perhaps a thousand miles away in New York, and are 
interested in the mines only as a matter of profit. State mining 


A FEDEKAL MINING COMMISSION. 


7 


mspectors would like to better conditions, but they do not wish to 
impose more burdensome regulations than do other States, all selling 
coal in a common, competing market. Moreover, they do not wish 
to .lose their positions, which they are very likely to do if they annoy 
the owners of coal mines, who very commonly own the railroads 
which carry the coal, and enjoy intimate relations with banks and 
other corporations that exercise quiet but effective power in State 
politics. 

Certain States, it is true, are more careful of the lives of their 
miners than are others. For example, in the 20-year period ending 
in 1908 the rate of mining fatalities for the whole country was 3.11 
per 1,000 miners employed, while in the east central section, com¬ 
prising western Kentucky, Indiana, and Illmois, the rate was only 
2.25 per 1,000 men employed. This is quite high compared with 
European States, but low compared with that of most American 
States. The western section, comprising the States of Colorado, 
Utah, and New Mexico, showed a rate of 6.4, the northern Pacific 
district of 7.4, while the single State of Colorado in the year 1910, just 
passed, has achieved the unenviable record of kiUuig 21 out of 
every 1,000 miners employed in that year; more than 20 times the 
annual death rate of France or Belgium. Efficient inspection and 
regulation will come only through the strong arm of the Federal 
Government, less subject to such influences, and able to impose 
regulations equal and the same upon the mining operators of all the 
States. The Federal Government can afford to equip and maintain 
bureaus of experiment and investigation, of an efficiency, and secure 
scientific experts of an ability, such as are impossible to the individual 
States. An interstate miniug commission w^ould have no authority, 
of course, to prescribe the conditions of coal mining where the product 
is sold within the State where it is produced. In the case of some 
small mines, doubtless, their operations would not fall under the 
jurisdiction of the Federal commission. The great majority of the 
coal mines of the country, however, would receive the protection of 
the safety regulations of the Federal commission. 

Another important contributing cause to mining accidents in 
America is the presence of coal dust, which through carelessness is 
allowed to accumulate. There is now no question among scientific 
men but that coal dust is explosive, and that to it may be traced some 
of the most frightful mining disasters in history. Among the first, if 
not the first, to experiment on this question was Mr. W. E. Garforth, 
manager of the Altofts Colliery, England. I was fortunate enough 
last year to witness as his guest the one hundred and fifteenth and one 
hundred and sixteenth experimental explosions conducted by him 
under conditions similar to those actually existing in the mines. This 
great-hearted Englishman related to me the origin of his interest in 
this subject. Some years ago he led a rescue party into his mine after 
an explosion, and when he came upon the bodies of the poor fellows, 
fathers and sons locked in each other’s arms, the sight almost over¬ 
came him. He formed a resolution then never to rest until he had 
learned the causes of these terrible explosions. He has demonstrated 
beyond the shadow of a doubt the explosiveness of coal dust, and his 
conclusions have been corroborated by experiments conducted by the 
mining bureaus of the United States and other Governments. Mr. 
Garforth has shown that by keeping the walls and floors of his mine 


8 


A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


covered with stone dust composed of the pulverized shale commonly 
found adjacent to coal-bearing strata, that the coal dust, smothered 
by noninflammable material, will not explode. The total cost for 
this protection amounts in his mine to only one-fifth of a cent per ton 
of coal mined. The lives of many hundreds of miners have been 
thus saved at only a trifling expense. 

In certain districts, such as the Longwall fields of northern Illinois, 
this smothering of the-coal dust by stone dust is accomplished by 
natural means. In that district particles of shale are continualty 
falling from the roofs of the mines. Crumbling to powder from 
exposure to the air, the shale dust becomes so mingled with the coal 
dust as to render the latter noninflammable; and in the 40 years in 
which this field has been worked no explosion has occurred. Various 
methods are now used to render coal dust nonexplosive—the use of 
stone dust as mentioned, the use of water or steam to keep the coal 
dust moist, and a combination of the two in a sort of shale whitewash 
which forms a protective coating over walls and floors. A State 
mining inspector in Alabama reported to the State officials, after each 
visit to the Virginia mine near Birmingham, that there was a large 
accumulation of dry coal dust in the mining hallways. These reports 
were correctly stamped and filed away in the proper pigeon hole, 
until one day the coal dust became ignited, the bowels of the earth 
were torn asunder by a terrific explosion, and a few days later the 
bodies of 160 miners were brought to the surface. The inspector had 
made his examination all right; the State official had filed the report 
all right; the only trouble was that nothing was done about the 
coal dust. 

Another fruitful cause of miners’ deaths is the use of wooden struc¬ 
tures in shafts of mines. On September 6, 1869, the wooden shaft 
of the Avondale coal mine, in Luzerne County, Pa., caught fire. 
Ten thousand people gathered about the conflagration, helpless to 
give aid. Finally the whole mass of burning timbers fell with a 
crash into the mine, setting it afire. One hundred and nine miners 
lost their lives. Such an accident would be impossible in Europe, 
where no wood is permitted in the shaft structures. The Avondale 
disaster occurred more than 40 years ago. Did it deter coal operators 
from building wooden shaftsNot at all; the wooden shafts went 
right on building, and piany a miner since then has lost his life from 
the burning of wooden shaft structures erected since the Avondale 
disaster, and to-day nearly all shaft structures in America are of 
wood. In Europe, as has been said, wooden shafts are not permitted. 
Experience has shown at frightful cost that these things can not be 
left to the volition of the operator or the miner or to the regulation 
of individual States. The National Government must enact regula¬ 
tions and appoint inspectors to enforce them. An niterstate mining 
commission is necessaiy to see that superintendents are competent 
and faithful, that miners understand the fundamental principles of 
their dangerous profession before undertaking their duties; that 
safety lanips are used where gas exists in dangerous quantities; that 
coal dust is kept wet, earth covered or removed; that shooting in or 
off the solid is not permitted; that only permissible explosives appro¬ 
priate to the mine in question, and only in permissible quantities, 
should be allowed; that the use of electricity shall be carefully regu¬ 
lated; and that several openings to the mine shall be maintained! 


A EEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


9 


In the Avondale disaster just referred to, where the single opening 
into the mine was blocked by the burning shaft, another mine open¬ 
ing would have saved the lives of all. A separate opening, however, 
would have cost money. The bodies of the whole force, 109 men, 
were found back of a small embankment which in their last hours 
they had attempted to throw up to dam back the deadly gases. A 
large proportion of American mines to-day have but a single open- 
ing, rendering escape im^ssible if the shaft itself or the passageway 
to the shaft takes nre. The recent Briceville, Tenn., accident is one 
of many cases where a second opening to the mine would have saved 
hundreds of lives. 

In Europe the one distmguishing characteristic of mine manage¬ 
ment is the careful, prudent foresight wdth which the miners’ lives are 
safeguarded. In America the one universal characteristic is the reck¬ 
less disregard of the morrow, the criminal disregard of the consider¬ 
ations of safety. The Cherry, Ill., disaster, in which 350 miners lost 
their lives, was caused by a boy pushing a tramcar, loaded with hay 
for the mules, against an open torch stuck in the walls of the hallway. 
Such management in the case of either the hay or the lighting would 
have been impossible in any European mine. The Austrian consul, 
in rendering to his Government the report of the catastrophe, charges 
the operators with criminal carelessness and negligence in seven dif¬ 
ferent specified particulars. 

Newly arrived immigrants are very cheap. While it would cost 
something, say 1 cent per ton of coal mined, to make conditions com¬ 
paratively safe, the present system is perhaps cheaper. It is doubt¬ 
ful if the average miner killed during the last 20 years has cost his 
employer S50 in damages paid to his dependents. If these men were 
slaves worth about $2,000 apiece, as in antebellum days, they would 
not have killed 30,000 of them in 20 years, bringing upon themselves 
a loss of $60,000,000. They would have made their mines as safe as 
those in Europe or else have gone out of business. 

It is doubtful if there is a mine to-day in the United States which 
could pass the inspection which is required of all mines in Europe in 
the matter of careful minute precautions against accidents. State 
regulations, for the reasons I have mentioned, will never solve the 
problem. W’^e have had a good deal of State legislation in the past 
few years having for its object the lessening of dangers in mining; but 
it has been in just these years that the highest mortality ever known 
in the history of mining in any country has taken place in American 
State-regulated mines. In the Marianna, Pa., disaster, costing the 
lives of about 160 men, the State mining inspector had just completed 
his inspection, pronounced everything to be in perfect condition, and 
had proceeded a short distance frotn the mouth of the shaft when a 
fearful roar shook the earth, and he turned to see the heavy iron cage 
from which he had just stepped out torn from its chains and hurled 
a distance of 300 feet, bearing in its flight the bodies of the two men 
who had it in charge. 

State'inspection has never been efficient, is not now, and them is 
no reason to believe that it will become efficient in the future. The 
Federal Government must take hold of the situation and use compul¬ 
sion. An advisory relation to the miners on the part of the Federal 
Bureau of Mines is good, but it does not go far enough; it must not 
only be able to make recommendations, but it must be able to compel 


10 


A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


the mine owners to carry them out. A Federal system of rescue sta¬ 
tions equipped with oxygen helmets and other safety apparatus de¬ 
serves great praise. However, the essential thing is not to rescue 
survivors after an explosion has taken place, but for the representa¬ 
tive of the Federal Government to be able to say, ^‘Your mine is 
unsafe; you must do this, and this, at once, otherwise your products 
will be debarred from interstate commerce.^’ Prevention, not cure, 
should be the policy. 

Now, how should the Federal Government take hold of this matter ? 
We advocate the following plan: 

The establishment, b}" congressional enactment, of a permanent 
commission of, say, five members, analogous in character to the Inter¬ 
state Commerce Commission; this commission to have complete 
power to prescribe the conditions under which coal entering into 
interstate commerce shall be mined, just as the Federal Government 
at present passes upon tjie character and conditions under which 
meat products enter into interstate commerce. This commission 
should have power to appoint Federal mining inspectors and to 
enact regulations for all coal entering into interstate commerce. The 
members, to be appointed b}^ the President, should consist of three 
scientific men, selected for their special eminence in the subject of 
coal mining; one practical coal miner; and one business man of expe¬ 
rience in the mining and marketing of coal. This commission should 
be empowered: First, to appoint its own inspectors; second, to pass 
and enforce regulations protecting the lives of the miners; and, third, 
to prevent the waste of coal in mining (now nearly one-half) for the 
benefit of future generations. 

In the case of coal lands still owned by the Nation—still one-third 
of the total coal area—protection of the mineracan be most effectively 
secured by retaining the ownership in the hands of the whole people 
and operating them either directly by the Government or through 
leases in which the provisions are made for safety regulations such as 
have proved so effective in saving life in European mines. 

The fact that private profit is eliminated under government owner¬ 
ship and operation would make it easier both to safeguard the miners’ 
lives and protect the consumer from extortionate charges. Even 
under private ownership, however, there is much misapprehension as 
to the amount of the increase in the cost of production necessitated by 
safety precautions. Mr. Victor Watteyne, inspector general of mines, 
Belgium, one of the European experts invited by our Government to 
investigate American mining conditions, states that in his opinion 
the transformation of American mining methods, now extremely dan¬ 
gerous, so as to bring about a condition of comparative safety would 
be attended by little, if any, increase in the cost of production. He 
remarks that similar dangerous conditions once existed in France and 
Belgium, now the safest coal-mining countries in the world, and that 
the safety regulations which brought about this result were, when 
first introduced, bitterly opposed by operators on the ground of 
increased expense. To-clay, he adds, the operators, once so hostile, 
are perfectly satisfied with these regulations and admit that the 
increase in the cost of production has been trifling in amount. Mr. 
Eoderick, in his report above mentioned, states as his opinion that 
with an additional cost of about 1 cent per ton of coal mined in Penn¬ 
sylvania safety precautions could be introduced which would reduce 


A FEDERAL MINING COMMISSION. 


11 


the number of fatalities one-half. In other words, of the 8.893 miners 
killed in Pennsj^lvania in the period from 1899 to 1908, inclusive, the 
lives of 4,447 miners could have been saved by merely increasing the 
cost of coal production to the extent of 1 cent per ton. • 

Even if the cost of production should be increased to a greater 
extent than is claimed oy Mr. Roderick and Mr. Watteyne. humane 
and broad-minded operators will be willing to assume tliis extra bur¬ 
den, provided, of course, that it fall equally on all competitors, so 
that such expenditure can be charged up to the cost of production, 
along with lanor, freight, etc., and thus be added to the sales price of 
coal. 

The movement toward employers’ liability legislation, now gaining 
strengtli in many States, will, moreover, render safety mining regu¬ 
lations more popular among employers, for if the employer is com¬ 
pelled to pay accident and death losses to the families of the killed 
miners precautionary safety regulations will become an economical 
business policy. The broad-minded and humane employer under 
safety regulations will be placed on a footing of equality with his 
unscrupulous and inhumane competitor. It is only by clothing some 
com]>etent tribunal with effective power that this tremendous waste 
of life will be brought to an end. And when we once realize the 
actual conditions we will put an end to them. When we read in the 
jiapers that some 300 miners were killed in the Menengah disaster, 
350 at the Cherry mine, as many more at Connellsville, and so on, 
the statements are mere figures to us, they have no human meaning. 
But if we could stand at the mouth of the mine upon its reopening 
after an explosion and behold the seemingly endless column of 
charred bodies borne hour after hour to the surface; if we could 
witness the long line of hearses on their way to the hillside burial 
ground; if we could hear the heartbreaking sobs of stricken wklows 
mingled with the pitiful wails of little children bereft of their fathers, 
if we could go in the days that follow to the bare homes deprived of 
then- breadwinners, and find that the little children have been taken 
out of school to gain their little pittance in the coal breakers; if we 
could see these things we would realize that it is not a question of 
States’ rights” or ‘^constitutionalism”; we would see that it is a 
question of ])rotecting the lives and the homes of our humble workers. 

Wlnm, after years of weak and inefficient State regulation of 
impure food products, the American people decided that they 
wished their lives and their homes protected by the strong and far- 
reaching arm of the Federal Government, all kinds of constitutional 
objections were brought to bear b}^ the manufacturers of impure 
products. They feared for the future of our country if the (Consti¬ 
tution were to be so trampled upon at the expense of the so^'ereignty 
of the States. But when we decided that we wanted it, the lawyers 
found a way for us. Uncle Sam now places his inspectors in the 
packing houses of Kansas City and thereby protects the homes of 
New ^ ork and San Francisco. The question for us is, do we really 
want the lives and the homes of these poor miners protected ? If 
we do- really, earnestly do—the lawyers will arrange the constitu¬ 
tional problems involved. 

At the best the coal miner leads a hard life, in the depths of the 
mine, shut out from the light of the sun, breathing all day foul air 
and gases, prone by his occupation to tuberculosis and other diseases. 


12 


A FEDERAL MLNIITG COMMISSION. 


Ih-ing ^vith his family usually in dhty, smoke-covered villages, bare 
of trees and vegetation, ail tKis for miserable wages, in order that vou 
and I may enjoy our bright firesides, and that the business of the Na¬ 
tion, through factory and railroad, may go on. Is it not the least 
that we can do for these poor fellows to see that the present farce of 
State regulation should not stand in the way of a strong interstate 
mining commission that ‘will protect them against the useless, fool¬ 
ish, . and umiecessarv waste of life which now characterizes our 
American mining industry ? 


o 



